ained to a poetic style easier, freer, and more genuine than the
cumbrous rhetoric, partly derived from the allegorising style of the
_Roman de la Rose_ and its followers, partly influenced by corrupt
following of the re-discovered and scarcely yet understood classics,
partly alloyed with Flemish and German and Spanish stiffness, of which
Chastellain, Cretin, and the rest have been the frequently quoted and
the rarely read exponents to students of French literature. The contents
of the _Marguerites_, to take the order of the beautiful edition of
M. Felix Frank, are as follows: Volume I. contains first a long and
singular religious poem entitled _Le Miroir de l'Ame Pecheresse_, in
rhymed decasyllables, in which pretty literal paraphrases of a large
number of passages of Scripture are strung together with a certain
amount of pious comment and reflection. This is followed (after a
shorter piece on the contest in the human soul between the laws of the
spirit and of the flesh) by another poem of about the same length as the
_Miroir_, and of no very different character, entitled _Oraison de L'Ame
Fidele a son Seigneur Dieu_, and a shorter _Oraison a Notre Seigneur
Jesus Christ_ completes the volume. The second volume yields four
so-called "comedies," but really mysteries on the old mediaeval model,
only distinguishable from their forerunners by slightly more modern
language and a more scriptural tone. The subjects are the Nativity, the
Adoration of the Three Kings, the Massacre of the Innocents, and the
Flight into Egypt. The third volume contains a third poem in the
style of the _Miroir_, but much superior, _Le Triomphe de l'Agneau_, a
considerable body of spiritual songs, a miscellaneous poem or two,
and some epistles, chiefly addressed to Francis. These last begin the
smaller and secular division of the _Marguerites_, which is completed
in the fourth volume by _Les Quatre Dames et les Quatre Gentilhommes_,
composed of long monologues after the fashion of the Froissart-Chartier
school, by a "_comedie profane_," a farce entitled _Trop, Prou [much],
Peu, Moins_; a long love poem, again in the Chartier style, entitled _La
Coche_, and some minor pieces.

Opinion as to these poems has varied somewhat, but their merit has never
been put very high, nor, to tell the truth, could it be put high by any
one who speaks critically. In the first place, they are written for the
most part on very bad models, both in general plan and in part